Re: postinstall wiped out my /etc/rc changes

On Sat, 03 May 2008 09:52:17 -0400
Greg Troxel <gdt%ir.bbn.com@localhost> wrote:
> I think it's more complex than that. It isn't obvious -- at least
> not to me -- which files in /etc are "owned" by the system (and hence
> are fair game for auto-replacement), and which are owned by the
> administrator. (I raised similar questions a few months ago about
> the power management scripts.) We need a clear, clean way to make
> that distinction, and to make it obvious to the community.
>
> See pkgsrc/sysutil/etcmanage. The rule there is that a file is owned
> by the system if it is marked automatically managed and is unmodified
> from when it was marked (hash registered in db). I've been updating
> many systems with this for years with no surprises.
>
Right, but how does it keep straight which files are automatically
managed? Hard-wired? How does it track different versions of NetBSD?
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb